Prosecution Insights
Prosecution Insights
Technology area: Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering
6 pending office actions • 4 art units • 6 examiners • 0 of 6 (0%) have an AI response strategy ready • 21 patents granted in the last 365 days
Grohe AG is currently addressing 5 pending office actions within the Medical Devices & Mechanical Engineering technology area. These 5 actions are being reviewed by 5 distinct examiners, meaning that no two pending matters are currently assigned to the same individual. This relationship between the 5 pending office actions and the 5 distinct examiners suggests that the company must manage 5 unique examiner relationships and sets of expectations simultaneously.
The portfolio's current activity is spread across 4 distinct art units, indicating that the active matters involve several different technical specialties within the broader engineering field. The busiest examiner, BELL, SPENCER E, is assigned 1 busiest examiner pending office action. Since the total number of pending office actions is 5 and there are 5 distinct examiners, every examiner is currently handling exactly 1 action. This distribution across 4 distinct art units highlights a decentralized prosecution environment where each of the pending office actions is proceeding on its own independent track.
Based on the USPTO statutory response window for each pending office action. 3 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date; the rest are excluded from the tile counts.
Every pending office action with a known statutory deadline, placed on a days-until-due axis. Dots left of Today are overdue; the further right, the more runway. Cases that share a deadline window stack vertically. 3 of the docket's apps have a known mailing date.
Difficulty is derived from the rejection statutes on the most recent pending office action. §101-driven and multi-statute cases are graded Hard; §112-only and obviousness-type double-patenting cases are graded Easy; everything else is Medium. "Unknown" means we have not yet parsed a statute for that office action.
| Bucket | Cases |
|---|---|
| §103 only | 1 (17%) |
| Multi-statute (no §101) | 5 (83%) |
How the docket's pending cases split across USPTO tech-center bands.
Manual office-action response work runs about 10 hours per case. The time-saved bands below show what IP Author's prosecution pipeline typically delivers — a conservative 20% on the low end, 35% in the middle, 50% on the high end.
| Examiner | Apps on this docket | Allow rate | Interview lift |
|---|---|---|---|
| BELL, SPENCER E | 1 | 63.3% | +12.6% |
| BARRERA, JUAN C | 1 | 63.3% | +35.0% |
| SMALL, NAOMI J | 1 | 63.9% | +23.7% |
| HO, ANNA THI | 1 | 40.0% | +33.9% |
| LE, MINH Q | 1 | 80.6% | +16.3% |
| ZHOU, QINGZHANG | 1 | 67.3% | +24.5% |
Multi-statute / §101-driven matters, or cases in front of an examiner with an allow rate under 30%. The top 5 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18713004 | PLUMBING FIXTURE FOR A SHOWER SYSTEM | BELL, SPENCER E | 8d overdue |
| 18037201 | A DEVICE FOR MOUNTING SANITARY EQUIPMENT TO A WALL AND A SANITARY INSTALLATION COMPRISING SUCH A DEVICE | LE, MINH Q | 15d |
| 18562993 | DEVICE FOR SELECTING A FLOW PATH OF A LIQUID OF A SANITARY SHOWER SET | HO, ANNA THI | 62d |
| 18768393 | SHOWER HEAD FOR A WATER FAUCET | BARRERA, JUAN C | — |
| 18070838 | JET REGULATOR FOR A SANITARY FAUCET AND SANITARY FAUCET HAVING SUCH A JET REGULATOR | ZHOU, QINGZHANG | — |
Cases in front of an examiner whose interview lift is 10 percentage points or more — i.e. interviewed cases historically resolve more favorably than non-interviewed ones. The top 6 ordered by deadline are shown.
| App # | Title | Examiner | Due in |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18713004 | PLUMBING FIXTURE FOR A SHOWER SYSTEM | BELL, SPENCER E | 8d overdue |
| 18037201 | A DEVICE FOR MOUNTING SANITARY EQUIPMENT TO A WALL AND A SANITARY INSTALLATION COMPRISING SUCH A DEVICE | LE, MINH Q | 15d |
| 18562993 | DEVICE FOR SELECTING A FLOW PATH OF A LIQUID OF A SANITARY SHOWER SET | HO, ANNA THI | 62d |
| 18768393 | SHOWER HEAD FOR A WATER FAUCET | BARRERA, JUAN C | — |
| 18708036 | SENSOR ARRANGEMENT FOR DETECTING A PERSON IN AN AREA OF USE OF A SANITARY FACILITY | SMALL, NAOMI J | — |
| 18070838 | JET REGULATOR FOR A SANITARY FAUCET AND SANITARY FAUCET HAVING SUCH A JET REGULATOR | ZHOU, QINGZHANG | — |
| Art Unit | Apps |
|---|---|
| 3752 | 3 |
| 1711 | 1 |
| 2685 | 1 |
| 3753 | 1 |
| App # | Title | Examiner | Art Unit | Statutes | Status | Due in | AI | Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18713004 | PLUMBING FIXTURE FOR A SHOWER SYSTEM | BELL, SPENCER E | 1711 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 8d overdue | Pending | Oct 28, 2024 |
| 18768393 | SHOWER HEAD FOR A WATER FAUCET | BARRERA, JUAN C | 3752 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jul 10, 2024 |
| 18708036 | SENSOR ARRANGEMENT FOR DETECTING A PERSON IN AN AREA OF USE OF A SANITARY FACILITY | SMALL, NAOMI J | 2685 | §103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Jun 06, 2024 |
| 18562993 | DEVICE FOR SELECTING A FLOW PATH OF A LIQUID OF A SANITARY SHOWER SET | HO, ANNA THI | 3752 | §102§103§112 | Non-Final OA | 62d | Pending | Nov 21, 2023 |
| 18037201 | A DEVICE FOR MOUNTING SANITARY EQUIPMENT TO A WALL AND A SANITARY INSTALLATION COMPRISING SUCH A DEVICE | LE, MINH Q | 3753 | §103§112 | Non-Final OA | 15d | Pending | Jun 27, 2023 |
| 18070838 | JET REGULATOR FOR A SANITARY FAUCET AND SANITARY FAUCET HAVING SUCH A JET REGULATOR | ZHOU, QINGZHANG | 3752 | §102§103 | Final Rejection | — | Pending | Nov 29, 2022 |
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